CH Products
was one of the first companies to offer joysticks, yokes, rudder
pedals, throttle quadrants, and other accessories for PC-based
civilian and military flight simulations. It announced the latest in
its line of flight yokes, the
CH Eclipse
Yoke (SRP $174.95), in the fall of 2008. It's a step up from the
venerable
Flight Sim Yoke (SRP $129.95), offering several new features and
controls that compete with the
Saitek Pro Flight Yoke System
(reviewed here at BruceAir.com).

Yoke Features

The all-in-one Eclipse Yoke shows its CH Products pedigree and is
a solution for folks who don't want or need separate
throttles, rudder pedals, and consoles for switches and knobs. Like the
Flight Sim Yoke, it includes
built-in power controls, which can be configured as throttle,
propeller, and mixture levers or as two power levers, plus, for
example, a spoiler control.

The Eclipse, however, adds several controls to the basic set
offered on the Flight Sim Yoke—most prominately, paddles
on either side of the hub. By default, the paddles are rudder
"pedals" in Flight Simulator (they could be gear shifts for a
driving simulation).

The yoke's hub includes several other buttons, knobs, and dials:

Programmable trim/scroll wheels with
center-push function

Two backlit square push buttons and a third
round push button

A three-color LED selector dial that
multiplies the functions (up to 240 commands/functions) you can
program with the
CH Control Manager software (a free download from CH
Products)

Each arm of the yoke includes an eight-way hat switch and rocker
switch (the Flight Sim Yoke has only one hat switch).

Testing the Eclipse

Like its predecessor from CH Products, the Eclipse is made of heavy black plastic.
It feels a bit stouter than the Flight Sim Yoke, although the design is
sleeker—perhaps another nod to the competition from Saitek. The
levers and other controls have positive, smooth
actions. The new paddles are easy to reach and move.

The Eclipse attaches to the edge of a desk or table with two clamps that can handle
thicknesses from 3/4 to 2-1/4 in.

I found the attaching mechanism a bit fussy compared to the single, beefy
clamp that secures the Saitek yoke, but the Eclipse system holds the
control securely without getting in the way, and that's the goal.

Setup is simple: plug the USB connector
into your computer, and the device driver installs automatically.
You don't need to run an installation program. Since all essential controls are on
the Eclipse, you need only one open USB
slot, and there's no tangle of cables to contend with.

Flight Simulator
X recognized the yoke immediately, and with the Settings
command in Flight Simulator, I was able quickly to configure the
yoke buttons and throttle quadrant levers for the stock Baron BE58. (For
more information about customizing control settings in Flight
Simulator, see
Using a Joystick in the Flight Simulator X
Learning Center.)

Control Feel

Like the Flight Sim Yoke, the Eclipse uses a plastic shaft and centering spring.
The elevator and aileron "feel" is comparable to that of the Flight
Sim Yoke and the
Saitek Pro Flight Yoke System
(which touts a metal shaft connecting the yoke to the housing). In
other words, the action isn't as smooth and precise as
it could be. But as I've often noted before, the next step up in controls
for PC-based simulations costs at least $500, and even those
controls don't precisely emulate real airplane controls.

Still, the Eclipse provides a serviceable control
feel, and after a few virtual flights, you’ll fine-tune
your inputs to hand-fly effectively, just as you adjust to the
differences in control responses among real airplanes.

The Eclipse certainly meets the FAA specification for flight
training devices, which, for example, requires that “Levels 2 and 5
need control forces and control travel only of sufficient precision
to manually fly an instrument approach.”

All-In-One Solution

The Eclipse offers a significant advantage over its rivals. It consolidates
all controls, including power and rudder mechanisms, in one
unit. If you value being able quickly and easily to convert your PC from
workstation to flight trainer, the Eclipse's simplicity and
space-saving are plusses.

You
of course give up the larger power levers
available as an accessory with the Saitek system. Those separate
throttles feature
realistic, long control throws and detents. But CH Products also
offers a separate
throttle quadrant that has six levers (double the
three controls on the Saitek system).

Configuration and Customization

To use all of the buttons and switches on the
Eclipse with Flight
Simulator, you must spend a few minutes changing
and adding control assignments with the Settings command (see
Using a Joystick in the
Flight
Simulator Learning Center). This process is a straightforward select-and-click
operation that lets you specify which buttons, dials, switches, and
levers on the Eclipse control such functions as
nose-up and nose-down trim, operation of the landing gear and flaps, and
so forth.

To take full advantage of all the controls on the Eclipse, you
need the
CH Control Manager software. CH Products wisely doesn't
include a software CD with the yoke; you can get the latest
version of the software as a free download from the company's website.

I've never bothered to dream up and then create some 200 control
assignments for Flight Simulator. I'd never remember them all
anyway, and in most situations, I prefer to use a mouse to operate
cockpit controls in Flight Simulator. Doing so replicates reaching
for landing gear and flap levers, avionics knobs, and light switches
in a real cockpit. But if (like the FAA) you insist on physical
controls,
CH Control Manager lets you make the Eclipse as complicated
as a church organ.

Overall Value

The Eclipse is a welcome addition to the world of virtual
cockpits. It adds several new features, including an innovative
solution to the "rudder problem."

Most importantly, the Eclipse gives the typical virtual aviator a
compact, easy-to-use, option at a reasonable price. If you insist
that a complete Flight Simulator "fort" is essential to deliver a
realistic experience—for training or entertainment—like its rivals,
the Eclipse alone won't suffice. But for most of us, the Eclipse
more than meets the requirement for a set of controls that makes
Flight Simulator a practical alternative to flying a real airplane.